Desperately need help with sexually charged Toos

[Symonne]

Hi everyone. I desperately need help. Here is some background. I have a male lesser sulfer-crested Too that is about 26 yr old and has been with me for 23. He was wild caught, traumatized and rescued by me. He is healthy, but has been feather picking his chest and top of his wings for years. I also have a 2.5 year old male goffin who is also healthy. Both birds are on Lafeber nutriberries, fruit and veg diet. Each has a custom cage 6'x6'x4' in their room with proper lighting and lots of toys. They forage 90% and play out of their cages with me for 3-4 hours a day. I am giving this information so that you know all angles have been considered to resolve this problem.
Problem - my lesser is very sexually charged and is stimulating my goffin to the point that the baby is now yanking out all of his feathers. we used the Deslorelin implants and it was successful for only 2 months and subsequent implants have had no affect anymore. Both me and the vet are puzzled. Both birds want to be near each other and get very anxious and angry if separated. They are now barbering each other badly and am really worried. I am wondering how owners of multiple birds deal with this problem. Oh, I don't touch them except on their head for a quick rub and I mist them 2-3 times a week. My goffin has gone from fully feathered and flying to down feathers only in a matter of 3 days. PLEASE HELP

 

[Scott]

Welcome to the forums, what a vexing dilemma!

I have multiple cockatoos, but have never experienced the degree of sexual frustration you describe. Honestly, this is uncharted territory for me and I feel great empathy for your situation. Do they interact while out of the cage? There is a significant size differential, though I've had Moluccans and Citrons with Goffins to no ill effect. My hunch is to separate them in different areas of the home for now, though they will likely contact-call. But that might also be the worst action, so hopefully you'll garner informed opinion!

 

[GaleriaGila]

My best idea concerns their light schedule. Ever since the Rickeybird hit sexual maturity, I've had to manage his hormones! If kept on too steady a long day, and too much light, he stayed "in the mood" (aggressive, even louder than usual, pleasuring himself on my neck ) year round. If I keep him on a natural light schedule... up with dawn, down with dusk, year around... THEN he's only a little monster rooster from July to September). He has his own room, so I can do that easily.
Good luck!
I'm glad you're here, and reaching out.

 

[Symonne]

Thank you for responding. As for separating them in different rooms - it causes great distress for them. they literally bang around the cage and scream bloody murder. when I come home from work I get them out and they play around with me for about 3 hours and that is the time they are also in contact with each other. In that time, they fight, play, pull each other's feather, tease, .... If I only bring them out 1 at the time, they will not play and keep going back to the room. I have no objection if they want to pair up; as long as they are happy. But they just frustrate each other badly.
As for dark time - they get about 10 hrs. I have tried to increase it but that reduces their time out of the cage substantially since I get home about 5 pm.

 

[Symonne]

Scott:
you have multiple cockatoos and you have no problems with them affecting each other? how is that possible? what is your secret? ))))

 

[Scott]

Scott:
you have multiple cockatoos and you have no problems with them affecting each other? how is that possible? what is your secret? ))))

I have 6 cockatoos. All is not bliss, but several of them get along uncaged 24/7/365.

The cockatoo flock:

Five are Goffins; two are a proven wild-caught pair I've had for 31 years. Three are their hand-fed offspring and all live in my home. The sixth is a female Citron, Alice; her mate passed on two years ago. She lives in a large flight cage, preferring to socialize with the male Goffin patriarch. They mingle under supervision - I'd love to combine them but fear the worst for reasons you'll see.

Gabby, the eldest Goffin offspring does not get along with his mother Peanut or his middle brother, Abby. He lives separated and has undivided attention from me and the other human servants. He does get along with his younger brother, Squeaky. About 7 years ago, the patriarch couple Peanut and Popcorn were separated due to male aggression that escalated. Popcorn is the Goffin associating with Alice and both have large flight cages. So, Peanut was introduced to two of her offspring, Abby and Squeaky and get along very well. They live in a bird-proofed room and are uncaged. Also present in the room is a Timneh; they never fight and respect boundaries. Alice's mate Gandalf, also a Citron, lived with them as did Big Bird, a Moluccan until the latter passed on. Thus, five cockatoos of three species lived in a 13' X 11" room totally uncaged. Hard to know whether this was a fluke or just great fortune? Never a competition for resources as food/water/toys are plentiful. I also make it a point to handle each for similar periods of time when inside the room; whenever individual handling is desired, I exit. All of the cockatoos except Popcorn love to be handled and cuddle, often one on each shoulder and a third in my lap. Popcorn can be touched and hand-fed but doesn't like cuddling or perching on a finger/shoulder.

 

[eagle18]

I can't really say much to help because my Umbrella and Bare Eye hate each other. I would keep them separated. When my Umbrella gets hormonal I give him chickpeas to eat and let him sleep in a dark room for about 12-14 hours. The barbering of one another is a bad habit that birds get into and will only stop when they are separated. Are you sure that the goffin is not yanking out his feathers because of the stress the other one is putting him through?

 

[Symonne]

Scott: you have 5 goffins? good god!!!!! I have one and he is like a mischievous drunken "orange county house wife"! He loved to fly through the arches in the house and get so close to the walls to unnerve me and used a lower wall as a slide. He is a handful and I love him for it. One morning I walked into his room and half of his outer feathers were torn and on the bottom of his cage. In the next two days he went through the rest. It was not the boredom kind of feather picking that starts at a spot. His vet thinks such a drastic overnight feather destruction is sexual and that he was getting stimulated by my lesser because of his constant physical contact. I am amazed that you had male and female cockatoos in one room without this kind of problem. Which makes me think that I may be doing something wrong. Now the vet is telling me that my only chance is to give them Lupron shots, but I am worried about its side effects.
Eagle 18- thanks for your response. My Lesser seems to be hormonal through out the year! My goffin destroyed his own tail, chest, and wing feathers. But each bird is plucking the feathers around the other's head. That is why I know that the mutual plucking is going on. You feed your bird cooked chickpeas! does that help in some way?

 

[smbrds]

Don't have much to add, besides welcome to the forum. Sexual frustrations and hormones are certainly hard to deal with, even with me having a tiel who used to do a few fly attacks. A very perplexing situation for sure that hopefully will resolve some and with good outcomes. I can only imagine putting them in different rooms would cause great distress which seems to be that way either way, but also as suggested by your vet is the stimulation towards your lesser.

 

[Scott]

Scott: you have 5 goffins? good god!!!!! I have one and he is like a mischievous drunken "orange county house wife"! He loved to fly through the arches in the house and get so close to the walls to unnerve me and used a lower wall as a slide. He is a handful and I love him for it. One morning I walked into his room and half of his outer feathers were torn and on the bottom of his cage. In the next two days he went through the rest. It was not the boredom kind of feather picking that starts at a spot. His vet thinks such a drastic overnight feather destruction is sexual and that he was getting stimulated by my lesser because of his constant physical contact. I am amazed that you had male and female cockatoos in one room without this kind of problem. Which makes me think that I may be doing something wrong. Now the vet is telling me that my only chance is to give them Lupron shots, but I am worried about its side effects.
Eagle 18- thanks for your response. My Lesser seems to be hormonal through out the year! My goffin destroyed his own tail, chest, and wing feathers. But each bird is plucking the feathers around the other's head. That is why I know that the mutual plucking is going on. You feed your bird cooked chickpeas! does that help in some way?

Goffins are superb fliers, extremely agile and able to momentarily hover and change direction on a dime. Never had one crash out of control.

After her separation from Popcorn, Peanut was housed with 4 male cockatoos, now with two and never a problem. She will sometimes overlap tails with one of her offspring, but there seems no copulation, no nest box, no errant eggs. One of the reasons I may be lucky is Goffins are less neurotic than many cockatoo species, and they have each other when their human servants are not. I believe they can do well in "flocks" in captivity.

The problems certainly seem sexual, of extraordinarily heightened frenzy.